This stems from the ongoing debate over whether light fatigue (80%-99% for hitters and 85%-99% for pitchers) actually negatively impacts performance in the sim. biglen just ran an extreme fatigue test league and we found that extreme fatigue is not a good strategy to use...but the debate rages on about the effects of slightly fatigued players. This test league aims to determine if slight fatigue penalties are actually hard enough on player performance in the sim.

This league will be a standard 24 team with league with the following parameters.

Using the 2012 averages of 6139 PA/team and 1445 IP/team as a baseline, teams would be made up of the following:

"Light Fatigue" teams would draft a maximum of 5,000 PA (81.5% of ML average) including their bench with the rule that no position player can start a game at less than 80% (this is the cutoff where people say fatigue starts to affect hitters. This also removes the ultra fatigued scrub as a starter strategy). They would draft a maximum of 1250 IP (86.5% of ML average) with the rule that no pitcher can start a game at less than 85% (this is the cutoff where people say fatigue starts to affect pitchers. This also removes the ultra fatigued scrub as a starter strategy). Breaking the starter percentage rules would result in a forfeits for the entire series in which the player appeared and owners who forfeited 3 series would be playoff ineligible.

"No Fatigue" teams would draft a minimum of 6660 PAs (108.5% of ML average) including their bench with the rule that no position player can start a game at less than 99% (I have to set it at 99% because that's the maximum autorest value and all owners would be required to set autorest for all players at 99%). They would have to draft a minimum of 1500 IP (103.8% of ML average) with the rule that no pitcher start a game at less than 99% (I have to set it at 99% because that's the maximum autorest value and all owners would be required to set autorest for all players at 99%). The maximum WHIP for any pitcher drafted would be 1.31 (that is the average WHIP of all pitchers for 2012) to prevent teams from loading up on cheap IP with a high WHIP. Breaking the starter percentage rules would result in a forfeits for the entire series in which the player appeared and owners who forfeited 3 series would be playoff ineligible.

NL East would be all "Light Fatigue" teams
NL Central would be a 2 "Light Fatigue" and 2 "No Fatigue" teams
NL West would be all "No Fatigue" teams
AL East would be all "Light Fatigue" teams
AL Central would be a 2 "Light Fatigue" and 2 "No Fatigue" teams
AL West would be all "No Fatigue" teams.

Again, I will definitely need someone to help me monitor for the forfeits as I know I will be away from a computer for multiple days while at the hospital and then who knows how much time I'll have with dad duties...

Other Rules:

Salary Cap – $80 million

DH – Yes (both leagues) - Note: Any Pitcher starting as a DH will also result in a forfeit.

AAA - None

Clones – None

Trades – None

Waiver Wire – No

Live Play – Limited to next series

Ballparks - No ballpark may be used that has higher than +/- 1 in any category. Since this is a test league for fatigue, I want to keep ballpark affects from skewing results too much.

I edited the "No Fatigue" teams to 10% above ML average since WIS builds in an extra 10% already into their fatigue model. These new amounts are nearly equal to the percentages that the fatigue teams are losing in PAs with WIS' 10% bonus.

I appreciate that nc...but the point of this is a test league for hitter fatigue and I want to limit variables as much as possible (hence the park limitations). I included the DH because I wanted to test hitting fatigue only on one player and not worry about defensive fatigue.

Posted by frazzman80 on 6/19/2013 1:18:00 PM (view original):I appreciate that nc...but the point of this is a test league for hitter fatigue and I want to limit variables as much as possible (hence the park limitations). I included the DH because I wanted to test hitting fatigue only on one player and not worry about defensive fatigue.

Hitting fatigue will be tested on every position player. I don't think the DH serves any purpose in this league.

Posted by rbow923 on 6/19/2013 1:47:00 PM (view original):What if the entire pitching rotation is below 85%? or fewer than 9 hitters above 80%? also, there are several ways for the pitcher to bat in the DH slot will this be allowed?

The 85% is for starting pitchers only, so fatigue teams could manage the PC of their rotation to keep them above 85%, or manage the bullpen to rest a player and spot start them if the rotation drops below 85%. If every pitcher is below 85% it would result in a forfeit. Same for hitters...autorest can keep them above 80% and your bench players can spot start. If everyone is below 80% then you would forfeit.

With the extra 10% WIS gives you and the PA/IP limits at 5000 and 1250, that essentially gives you 5500 PAs and 1375 IP before you reach 99%...I don't see fatigue teams having a problem staying above 80% and 85% respectively with those numbers. Fatigue teams will just have to draft accordingly and manage their rosters.

I will amend the rules so a pitcher starting in the DH slot will also result in a forfeit.

Posted by frazzman80 on 6/19/2013 1:18:00 PM (view original):I appreciate that nc...but the point of this is a test league for hitter fatigue and I want to limit variables as much as possible (hence the park limitations). I included the DH because I wanted to test hitting fatigue only on one player and not worry about defensive fatigue.

Hitting fatigue will be tested on every position player. I don't think the DH serves any purpose in this league.

It makes the light fatigue teams have to draft another hitter to use every game and allows the no fatigue teams to use some of the PAs they are required to draft on a hitter who plays every game rather than having and extra 1000 PAs on the bench. This will make sure the light fatigue teams are actually short on PAs (and have to play fatigued) and the no fatigue teams use more of the PAs they are required to draft.

It will also affect pitching, again making sure the light fatigue teams throw more pitches while the no fatigue teams can use the extra IP they draft.

I don't want this to be an $80 million Light Fatigue team versus a $70 million No Fatigue team due to the extra PAs/IP they wouldn't get to use. I want to make it as level a playing field as possible so we can see which strategy is actually more effective: better players at slightly fatigued levels or less good players at 100%.